ATHENS, 26 August 2004 — Jamaican speedster Veronica Campbell earned the Caribbean nation their first Olympic gold medal of the 2004 Games when she won the 200 meters yesterday in a searing 22.05 seconds.
Campbell, who won bronze in the women’s 100 meters on Saturday, clocked a personal best to finish well clear of United States teenager Allyson Felix who took silver in 22.18, a world junior record. Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas picked up bronze in 22.30 seconds. Campbell became only the second Jamaican woman track athlete to win Olympic gold. Deon Hemmings won the 400 meters hurdles in 1996.
The race showcased a new generation of women’s sprinters with a host of big names missing.
Olympic champion Marion Jones failed to qualify for the event at the United States trials, although she did compete in Athens on Wednesday, qualifying for the final of the long jump.
France’s Christine Arron, a pre-Games medal contender, failed to reach the final, as she did in the 100m.
The 22-year-old Campbell was the fastest qualifier for yesterday’s final and imposed herself on the race from the start.
The Jamaican roared off the bend with a meter lead and the 18-year-old Felix could not haul her in despite clocking a fantastic time herself. Felix has been faster than 20.18 once before, running 20.11 at altitude in 2003, but the time was not ratified as no dope test was taken.
Ferguson, who anchored the Bahamas to the Olympic 4x100 relay gold in 2000, clocked a season’s best in third, although she never threatened the leading pair.
Olga Kuzenkova of Russia won the Olympic Games women’s hammer gold medal.
Cuban pair Yipsi Moreno and Yunaika Crawford took silver and bronze respectively.
Fani Halkia delighted a home crowd when she won Greece’s second athletics gold at the Olympics, in the 400 meters hurdles.
Halkia ran away from her rivals on the home stretch to triumph in 52.80 seconds while world record holder Yuliya Pechenkina of Russia tripped and faded to last and world champion Jana Pittman had to settle for fifth place. The 110m world and Olympic champion Allen Johnson was also unlucky as he stepped into a hurdle and crashed out, sharing the fate of women’s 100m hurdles world champion Perdita Felicien the previous night.
Marion Jones, the three-time gold and double bronze medalist from Sydney 2000, finally made her appearance in Athens in the long jump qualifying and advanced with 6.70m.
Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele advanced into an Olympic 5,000 meters showdown for each to keep alive their hopes of clinching a rare athletics double.
Ioanela Tirlea-Manolache of Romania won silver with 53.38 and Tatiana Tereshchuk-Antipova of Ukraine bronze with 53.44 seconds as both made the most of Pechenkina’s stumble and the lacking form of Pittman who competed two weeks after arthroscopic knee surgery.
In the 5,000m heats, the 10,000m champion Bekele of Ethiopia clocked 13 minutes 21.16 seconds in the heat with the Moroccon icon El Guerrouj on his heels in 13:21.87 less than 24 hours after getting gold at last in the 1,500m.
Bekele aims to become the first man since countryman Miruts Yifter in 1980 to get a long distance double. The last 1,500m and 5,000m double dates back 80 years to Paavo Nurmi’s success.
The 800m world record holder and three-time world champion Wilson Kipketer of Denmark started another quest for a first Olympic gold, winning his heat in 1;44.69 seconds.
Tearful Yelena Isinbayeva beat her own world record to snatch the Olympic women’s pole vault gold from Russian teammate and bitter rival Svetlana Feofanova on Tuesday.
Isinbayeva, who accumulates world records at the same rate as former men’s champion Sergei Bubka, defied difficult, windy conditions to come back from the brink of defeat and win with 4.91 meters, surpassing her own mark by one centimeter.
Former gymnast Feofanova, the world champion, was second with 4.75 and Anna Rogowska of Poland took the bronze with 4.70.
It was Isinbayeva’s seventh world record this year yet the 22-year-old had been close to breaking down moments earlier.
